In the 47th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
After winning the toss, Shreyas Iyer chose to field first. Something which KKR always does and it also paid off today as their bowlers did an exceptional job in the first innings. Umesh Yadav in the powerplay bowled brilliantly and didn’t give away too many runs. Sunil Narine and Shivam Mavi also were at their best and with them, Tim Southee was also impressive while bowling at the end which helped KKR restrict the first-ever IPL champions to just 152/5 in 20 overs.
In the chase, Knight Riders were quick in running between the wickets which helped in a big manner to the team. Baba Indrajith (15) and Aaron Finch (4) started off well, definitely were looking well but couldn’t take it forward and construct a useful partnership. Captain Iyer (32) once again had a job to build a partnership which he did with Nitish Rana (48*). The duo together added 60 runs for the third wicket partnership which made it easy for KKR to win this contest. However, the job wasn’t done yet and to do this Rinku Singh (42*) came in at number five and hammered six fours and one six to take the Kolkata based team home in just 19.1 overs. Singh along with Rana played maturely to make sure KKR reach the target with no further hiccups. Some well-timed and calculated shots by both the batsmen won the game for KKR after five consecutive losses.
In the first innings, Jos Buttler (22) once again looked in fine touch but failed to play throughout the inning. Captain Sanju Samson (54) scored a half-century and took RR to a decent total. Although Samson scored a fifty, his inning wasn’t backed with a strong strike rate. To take RR to a respectable score, Riyan Parag (19) and Shimron Hetmyer (27*) hammered some quickfire runs in the end which gave the Jaipur based team an outside chance to win this match.
Tim Southee managed to take two wickets but gave away a few extra runs in the first innings. Shivam Mavi, Anukul Roy and Umesh Yadav also got one wicket each.
For RR, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Sen scalped one wicket each but couldn’t restrict KKR.
Rinku Singh was adjudged Man of the Match for his notable contribution with the bat towards the end which ensured KKR’s win over RR. This victory has kept Kolkata alive in the league as they progress ahead with eight points now on the table.
Scorecard:
Rajasthan Royals: 152/5, Overs 20, Sanju Samson 54, Tim Southee 2/46
Kolkata Knight Riders: 158/3, Overs 19.1, Nitish Rana 42*, Trent Boult 1/25